Brain Soda Podcast - Episode 45 - Boy Meets Chemistry

Episode Date: December 30, 2023

This week we're talking about the beloved TV series Boy Meets World, and a chemist's ultimate guide, the Periodic Table of Elements!

I'm back. Heh heh heh heh. Ah, brain soda. It's the Brain Soda Podcast. I, as always, in your host Kyle, joined by my co-hosts and co-horts, Brad. How's it going? And returning today, Frog. Zip, zip, zip, zip, zip, zip, zip.

Back from the safaris, don't I see. Frog, it is good for you to return to us. With all the Pokemon and with that we're gonna be talking about the periodic table but first Brad from yes do you guys remember childhood oh it was great it was because in 1993 as a part of TGIF ABC's Friday Night Television Block, there was a television show that premiered in its fall lineup that literally was like designed to grow up with us. And I think in a lot of ways did.

It resonates with audiences that were of its time and I found it later. Today we're talking about boy meets world. Yes. I love that show when I was a kid, man. It was great. and I found it later today we're talking about boy meets world. Yes, I love that show and I was a kid man. Yeah, it was great. I do too. I do too and I'm... And to pay a...

And you know what, Loki, I will say during my research, there's some spicy content of one of the female stars of this television show, salute to her too. So yeah, so one of the things I wanted to bring out person for most is when we talked about DC, we talked about how there's kind of a compartmentalization, even though there's like this, you know, almost 100 year history of sequential art continuity, right? Like you can kind of compartmentalize. You got your gold age, you got your silver age, right? With these seven seasons, because there is seven seasons up until 2000 this shows airs. So seven seasons and I need 30 to 2,158 episodes.

I would have thought more over seven seasons, but yeah, I guess yeah. I feel like they're pretty dense. They are. And we're gonna kind of get into a part of the reason why I feel like they stick with you more maybe, or there's more gravity to some of them that may make them feel like they're more important, I guess.

Yeah, no, I definitely agree. I don't know, but we'll get into that, right? Because a lot of things move and shift throughout seasons too. But anyway, during these seven seasons, you kind of have like this over-arching narrative that is Corey's life, obviously, right? And the Matthews household, kind of over-all in the general,

but like every person pretty much, Corey's life, as you know, it starts with him just like as a little kid. And then that, what grade is he in six or seventh, right? That's when he first, it's like his first day. He's in like junior high and then he ends up going into the high school in season two. It's weird. It's weird the way this works.

But yeah, he's like Ben Savage at this time is probably like 12 years old or something like that. Like he is probably six graders. So that is that Fred Savage's brother? Yeah, okay, because I loved Wonder Years and hopefully you'll cover that one day if you haven't seen it. Yeah, I've never actually sat down and watched Wonder Years. Oh man, we will definitely need to cover it. Absolutely. You've seen it. Not like all the way through but I've watched it a few times just when it's been on TV I know the cultural relevancy of it and stuff like that like Wendy and yeah, like it is a big I and it's a great. I washers like yeah, I washers through you know like it Like I would have with boy means world or whatnot right

Fischel Um, Topanga was 12 in 1993. Okay. Yeah. That's I thought there about 12 years old. Chile did season one. It happens in like a pocket universe and that's it. It gets canceled, right? Yeah. Corey feels like he's a six grader. Corey feels like it's his first year in junior high, not season two you're a freshman. But so to kind of go off that like this show was commissioned by ABC. They wanted something kind of like a family ties or growing pains, right?

Kind of conventional modern sitcoms of its time. And Mark Jacobs and April Kelly, the creators of the show, but Mark Jacobs was kind of like the major creative force throughout the show. He kind of looked at Corey and wanted him to be the younger brother. He wanted him to be that character that was the POV. You know what I mean? The person who you're following through.

And that link that you have and you grow up along with. And you see that, like a character like Eric in season one has a new girl every week. Yeah, to see older brother, the kind of mean bully older brother. Yeah, he's cool and he can't be seen with his younger, squirt kid brother or whatever else. And by the time you get to season seven, there appears in like arguably,

if you had to ask like, who's more competent by season 7's end like definitely Corey I'm in for right right if I had to hire one of the Matthews boys of hiring cool not over Sean over his brother Eric well Sean too though he's kind of a mess I mean yeah or fuzzy I don't remember I know he had some stuff go on. He had some alcohol problems later, like season five or six, I think, right? So, and then is that is one of the things that I guess we kind of got into a minute ago with your stuff is even though it's season seven's and it might feel like more is that a lot of these episodes have like very special episode, type of trope. They're tackling really heavy topics at times.

Yeah, I hope they still do that with TV shows nowadays. I don't watch those sitcom shows, but I hope. Yeah, I think the concept of the sitcom has changed so much that there is no boy meets world, like parallel. Sure, sure. But one of the things I wanted to talk about was there is this kind of compartmentalized narrative like there is in the DC universe.

In the earliest seasons, you start with Cory being like a young kid in what I used to think was elementary school, but it's kind of more likely like junior high or something like that, right? And he goes into high school. And even at this point you have the kind of established life set of Corey, his brother Eric, and his family at home with his younger sister, his parents, and his best friend Sean, and their teacher, Mr. Fini. Fini also happens to be Cory's next door neighbor and they live in like a suburban Philadelphia neighborhood, right? This story that you go on through seven seasons here is at this point like the early years of this

high school he ends up in season two having Mr. Turner jump in this kind of war Along the line the teacher that gets it. Yeah But Turner later does turn out to be a kind of focal point for these early seasons. Four and five are more transitional seasons, but they also like take those changes and lock them into place going forward. And six and seven are kind of like the college years and things are a bit more adult and seem to use the narrative. And like you think the seven-year span of a television show for a lot of people who find it to the point they would walk away from the point you were at in 1993 to you were at 2000 wherever you would have picked it up you're probably different person by the time it left or you put it down right like for sure so it does it grows with this audience and I feel like that's a big like another part of the reason why this show carries on so low because there were tons of shows like this in its day, right?

Yeah. Like we were saying, like the sitcoms change completely. But at this time, like even, even, which one? Well, one for? Yeah, same by the bell. Well, another ABC sitcom that really influences this show is actually family matters while significantly different. Yes, was pushed out from season one because they

thought he was too assimilated or Erko who'd like kind of absorbed family matters overall. Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The dad a little bit, but Erkel for sure So I feel like you can even see it in like the opening themes of this show how The season one open feels like hey, it's 1990. We just discovered how green screens really working Like that like early CGI and stuff like that moving around still at backgrounds Like that. Yeah, but it is fun and it's very lighthearted and it's a tone that kind of carries on throughout a lot of this show, even though it ends up tackling heavier subjects later on and stuff like that. Later on we get to like seasons three and four and they kind of do some fun, high concept

stuff. So there's an episode in season three where Corey gets shocked by a microwave, right? And he ends up traveling back in time to the 50s. Okay, I remember this one. Yes. I love this episode. And that's one, again, one of the things that like sitcoms of its day would do every once in a while.

It's like, even though this is supposed to be real life and like something that realistically could like kill you instead of this episode we'll send you back to the 50s for four you know five hours or whatever the events of the episode in tail time wise but yeah that's one of the ones I really like and another notable one I really like and another notable one, kind of high concept, a take on horror movies at the time was there's send up of like scream and I know what you did last summer where they're all trapped in the high school late at night and there's a killer running around and stuff like that and both of these though kind of follow through in its messaging and themes of dealing with Korean to hang in where they're at at relationship because in season two you meet this

character and from that point on it's kind of destined that these characters are always kind of angling towards each other and like they do have not necessarily like this picture-esque relationship. Yeah. It's rocky moments. Well, it's the classic sitcom like all these are the two, you know, Destin, it love interests, but you know, they break up again together and all that. Yeah, but for sure. Right. Yeah, I mean, and it's interesting to see though that like even in in By the end of the show and 2000 you have this couple like choosing to be together from the point that they were kids, young love and stuff like that. It is again like a super wholesome kind of cheesy show but because this show is so good I feel like it

holds its weight and it works. It is it is a good show for sure. So one of the things though that I love about this show and I wanted to bring up as well is that number of guest stars that have appeared throughout the litany of time that it, you know, air watching these seven-cylinder snooped on that. All right, no. Jennifer Love Hewitt, who actually appeared in that

That kind of slasher movie Yeah, she was beautiful in it Adam Scott mean a Savari Linda Cartelini who Cory actually cheats on to pangelo who Corey actually cheats on Topango. I don't know. She was in Freaks and Geeks and she's pretty well known. She's the mom in any home. You ever show them?

Okay. Front Savage, who appears later on, tries to hook up with Topango. His brother? Wait. Yeah, he's like a college professor at Topango. Oh really? That's a great thing. Yeah, I can't remember that He's like, hey, what's up girl? Yeah, it's funny

Shane West Ethan Soupley who's one of the bullies that comes in like the earlier block of seasons like season two or three Blake Clark and a lot of the Adam Sandler stuff is probably what he's most well known for that shuns dad Brittany Murphy Michael McKeon Chris Hardwick who appeared as the host of single now like he was at the time and also Vader and Jake Stank Roberts because they like appeared in WWE at how it's showing everything yeah it's it's I think that's another season five episode maybe man they just had a laundry list of people like that that is crazy. There's tons of people. But so later on after we get a little deeper into like the run of the high school time, right? So

this is about like mid season three kind of going into season four and like you've seen how Sean has a little bit less than a quarry at times and he kind of comes from the season four and like you've seen how Sean has a little bit less than a quarry at times and he kind of comes from the other side of the tracks and like that really develops and shows when Turner ends up taking Sean in. But later on, Blake Clark as we just mentioned, Sean's dad comes back and is really making an effort and then you meet one of the Lawrence brothers Matthew Lawrence's his other brother Sean's other brother and now he's in the fold of cast of characters to kind of roll around with Eric and also Interak was shown a lot and stuff like that right I feel like one of the fundamental things you can see is how this is growing up with you is you go from like,

spending a lot of time at Cory's house when you're not at school to being at the, is it an arcade or is a restaurant? What's that place that they go to? You don't have a talk in a while. Yeah, it's like a hangout spot. It's a restaurant, but it's not an arcade. I would say it's like a restaurant.

It's more a restaurant with like an arcade, like a David Buster's type deal, right? That little like the basement, it's like a downstairs somewhere. I always say it was like a basement. Yeah, it's some, yeah, it is. It's some step down, basement, bar, arcade,

I don't know. It is such like a loft thing you'd see, some 20, something in a metropolitan view. So yeah, you go from those early season stuff where that's what you're seeing more of is the, again, the thing that your life is kind of more focused around at that time is literally almost your home life, your school life, that's about it, right? And then you start to kind of move more into

a social dynamic with your friends and your peer groups and things like that. Until eventually, like again, in season six and seven, you're gonna make a college bookstore coffee shop thing, whatever that is by the end of the series. Pretty much, yeah. Yeah. Another character who comes towards these leather seasons is Angela and it's just like I would say one of the more like well-known interracial relationships between Sean and Angela and Sean at this point his his character is a big focal point on television but the actor himself he was a teen heartthrob at the time. Like he was all over magazine like that. Yeah, I was gonna say magazines. Like head. That's crazy. Like back in the day, the old market that it used to be.

Yeah, how much of a marker there was for magazines. And like, and a lot of these guys kind of step to away from film and television returning to some extent. Like Ben Savage after this show went into political science. Like, you know what I mean? Like a sight from Kevin Fever, writer Stroud, who really hasn't done all that much. You know what I mean? Like, he... Yeah, it's true. But Kevin Fever was a good movie though. Yeah. It's not terrible. I don't mind it either, but still. I mean... I guess not. I can take it or leave it. It's not like a war-winning movie, but you know, yeah to me just probably because it came out around it You know what the time and where what teenagers or whatever just nostalgia. Yeah, yeah, it was the perfect time for us

Right, yeah, but I want to give a big shout out out of all these people because like a lot of the older actors had already had like decent careers that had been going on right? Mr. Fini was played by William Decker, a guy who had played kit, had had countless television roles since like the 50s. Bro like he's really yeah he's an impressive yeah an impressive actor and and until even literally the last number of years because he's 90 something, if he's not dead now, he continued to be on television periodically here and there later on, even still. You know what I mean?

Mostly voice roles, but anyway, we'll free those the guy I wanted to talk about because he got a role to play Batman Beyond and He then kind of took that avenue and went into voice acting and He actually is part of a podcast for this show that he's doing with Dinel Fischel to Panga. Oh, of course Yeah, and writer strong right man ever ever since the office did it like every show is that now it seems I don't know if office was the first one, but yeah, that's what I was gonna say They were like the ones that made it big it blew off. Yeah, yeah

That there was like the scrubs one and there's just a bunch of them. Yeah, see I kind of figured that would be in the first No, because those guys are friends in real life I think it was after obviously it was yeah, and number one I want to say again giving will free of his roses because the guy's kind of been a pro thick voice actor after this show One of the things I really like of his performance over time is he starts his like like his performance over time is he starts his like, kind of, I don't wanna say like a joke or anything like that, but he seems like a popular kid.

He's got a girlfriend every week, you know. You're talking about hunters or chons. I'm talking about Eric. No, I'm talking about Eric and the early scenes. And then Batman, He played Batman Beyond. He played Terry McGinnis and Batman Beyond. Was that a, yeah. It's an animated series.

Okay. That takes place in the future. Gotcha. But that role, actually, it's funny. No, too really quick. Batman and Beyond's last day of recorded ending like the same day is the last day of Booy Meets World, aired or whatever, like just a question I thought in research.

But anyway, he became a prolific voice actor, but one of the things I found that was really funny was his character art over these seasons is he starts off as like the popular kid can't be seen with his younger brother. He's got a new girlfriend every week, or's trying to like get with the the hot chick that he meets up with in any given episode or whatever right. But by the end dude, he's just a complete like scatterbrain-proof ball. I said no, Eric, he like he cleans himself up a little bit towards the end doesn't he? I thought I know he's been. He was like, no, he, he, okay, he is always competent to the extent that you need him to be narratively, but comedic, like he is

your big comedic really through line. Sure. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Once you get to that C4 and 5 break, he gets flanderized. He does. He does. He does. He does. He flanderized. I won't see being flanderized. He does. He does. He does. He does. He does. He does. He does. He does. He does.

He does. He does. He does. He does. He does. He does. He does. He does.

He does. He does. He does. He does. He does. He does. He does. He does. He does. He does. He does. He does. He does. He does. when in episode or season two, you make this joke and say, he's in high school now. He's a high school freshman, right?

Yeah. And like, what's the arc for that character later on and stuff like that? You're at a kid's television show. He ends up being a really right part of any given scene. He's in for antics and things like that. I, I believe there's a scene that's a blooper reel because they couldn't even fit in narrowly to the show where he disguised himself as a couch for some apparent random reason, whatever episode. But later on seasons you get another character

introduced besides Angela played by the board. And by this point our cast is fully rounded out at home when it comes to what's happening within the Matthews household. They have had Joshua their youngest son by the by season six and yeah And they've went on into college, but season five pants off in a really interesting way where even after the rocky relationship has kind of set them into an on-again, off-again situation again, while they're about to graduate to Panga, proposes to Corey.

And this kind of mirrors the season three and we're Corey and her kind of reconnect at season three and where Corey and her kind of reconnect at Disney World. Like they met each other at Disney World or they went to Disney World. They reconnected. Yes. During the episode that that happens and he's following her around and her new squeeze trying to kind of winner back. Okay. And eventually he does. Yeah. And then yeah by the end of the series, they have a final sit down on Mr. Fini and he tells them all, you know, I want you to go out, go forward, believe in yourself, do good. And Tepenga says something and I really think it resonates and I

want to share with you guys now. She says, like, did you mean do well? And he goes goes no? I mean do good and he leaves them all with I love you Class dismissed it gets a following when it gets syndicated later It even gets a spin-off in 2014 with girl meets world that last for three seasons Yeah, and just in my research man. I I realized how much I really did miss shows like this and It has a good research, man, I realized how much I really did miss shows like this. And it has a good show. Yeah. Is it streaming? Anything? I believe it's on Disney Plus.

Okay. Yeah. Do you have anything for him? I was just saying that I never really watch Boy Meets were like that. I kind of grew up watching Malcolm in the middle for the most part. That was more of my growing up show. That is true. By the time we were growing up, this was in the middle for the most part. That was more of my growing up show. That is true. By the time we were growing up,

this was in the later stages. I was watching this probably more of log seasons, five years. Yeah, the later seasons. Yeah, exactly. But I did watch the whole thing, because, you know, just, man, yeah, that is a good show.

Even syndication, I think I went back and watched it later on. That's the thing though. It's like, I was like, back and watched it later on. That's the thing though. It's like, I was like, oh, there's an episode of this on whatever cable station had at that point. And I know I've watched this series in bits and bits and bits. Exactly. I'm not sure if I've watched every single episode, but I'm definitely, yeah, exactly in bits and pieces for sure.

Close. And there's only 158. Exactly. It was just surprising for sure. I thought there was more, but then that is a good one You know I don't know. I mean you know Fini is like Yeah, Fini is a perfect like it's a very distinct name, you know And I could see like a element or something being called Fini or something like that because a lot of elements get named after people

Yeah, I'm not a Fini Yeah, I'm not a Fini one day was in not a pretty one day, it was in classes like, horrid, look at, I found this weird magnesium strain. It's not magnesium, it's venous of the world. Exactly, yeah, that'd be cool. I'd be down for that. Yeah. So what do you know about the period of table?

Well, I'll be honest, man, this is one like so. I love it. Do you? That's great to you. That is great to your action. I do. I do kind of feel like it's one of the things in science that resonates most for me, right? Like really? Okay. And even though my understanding of it at one point was as simple as, wait a minute, why is crypto on on there? That's Superman's home planet. It kind of grew to me to mean so much more. And like this is one of the subjects, I feel a little bit more competent in because like,

I know that if you were to lay it out, like you were looking at it on the wall, there's columns within it designated to rows that are certain things like alkali metals and things like that, right? Yeah, definitely. Yeah, right. So like you said, Kyle, the pure out of table elements

or the pure out of table, it's a way to group all the elements of nature into a readable table where the chemical elements are arranged in rows and columns. The rows are periods and the columns are called groups. OK. And it's based on the periodic law, which states that when elements are arranged in order of their atomic number

and approximate recurrence of their properties is evident. So. So what is an approximate re-accurrence of their properties? Right. Right. That's it. Like, what does that mean? It's my point.

Like, I don't even want you to rescate as much as I just want to know the f**king means. Exactly. Well, curiosity, you know, that's why it's called the periodic table because like there's certain properties that each Row have among, you know, the elements in that row and then it's like a gradient of it like this has the most and this has the least Exactly. Yes. It's all about ingredients up and down left and right and like I'm not gonna talk I'm trying to simplify it as much as possible because you can get crazy with a pure edit table again You could take college courses on this right. Oh, I did yeah, exactly like I might in chemistry

So I'm like I hated it the entire time. Oh, wow, but you know, yeah I mean, no, let's not take it out on the podcast though. Sorry, I didn't hate it, but like- No, you're good, but- Exactly, like I worked as a chemist and everything and it's like, I don't know, it's just- it's not my thing. I'm a biology guy, right? But anyways, so there was a lot of attempts to make a pure out of table and like it was- it really occurred a lot in the 19th century, right? And the first attempts was made in 1817 when a German physicist named Johann Wolfgang Deberreiner, I think that's how you say his name, tried to classify the elements based on characteristics, right?

And he did that by kind of grouping them. And it wasn't until 1829 when he kind of grouped a bunch of elements in a group of three and he called them triads. And there was a few of them like there Wasn't even barely I wouldn't even say half the elements known at this time right? That's what I was gonna say by this point do we even know like half the alkaline metals do we even know not no even no Half of this point probably not we know probably like 20 or 40 I think if we do know a 20 or 40 elements Yeah, out of how many?

Well 118 total 118 okay, okay, okay technically 90 94 naturally occurring So because yeah, there's others are composites what they meet and interact within Nature are just made in lot labs like the oh, okay, okay, we'll get into that definitely yeah let's go I like the stuff for real I will say really quick this is the one on of all that I felt like okay like I don't need the primer as much but continue so Johan Wolfgang grouped orine bromine and iodine together and he grouped lithium sodium and potassium together and sulfur salineium and talerium together and he grouped lithium sodium and potassium together and sulfur solenium and telerium together and if you know I think both you guys should pull up a pure out of table right I'm actually looking at one right now exactly. So those are all like close those are on groups right those are all yeah

They're all right next to each other. Yeah, so he did he was on to something right like he could tell by the characteristics that they Were like and honestly from the description that you give me of this, it kind of sounds befitting that we only know what we know of this point and that this kind of failed experiment only goes as far as it does because like keeping them in triads kind of like it could work as a hex. You could make the periodic two tables that have... There is different ways to make it. I guess there's a way to make it like as a spiral. What I'm saying is the triads is a good embodiment for what we knew at the time of grouping them together. Exactly.

Because they're so similar and they're such a small sample size of what we possibly know, it's only three different groups of three different elements, right? Exactly. But it's a basis. Yeah, okay, so that what's your favorite elements? My favorite. I really like Krypton just because the name I hate saying that but it's true I like tungsten. What is that? I like gold. It's used to be it was

In kandescent lights that was what they used to make the first light bulb because you could bird it bright You know, you could run that high electricity through it. It would stay. It was like it's like really hard I guess yeah, what's the metal? I'm getting excited. Burn it hot baby. I also like, well, I do like all of the alkali metals too, but we'll get into I'll get into why I like the alkali metals. Yeah, I mean you. Yeah, so in 1863 British chemist John Newland sent a letter in to the chemical news with a table of elements

and this time he had 50 of them in there. And what Newlands realize is that if you arrange them by their atomic weights, you get similar elements that would end up next to each other. And the weights don't really work and we'll get into why, but because there's different ice steps. We'll talk about that. He also found though that after every eight elements, every eight, there's a different group of characteristics.

In the lower mass, you know, we're a different group of characteristics in the lower mass. We're talking like the sodiums, elithiums, and hydrogen, helium, things like that. Oxygen, carbon, just shortly after that, though, in 1868. German chemist, Lothar Meyer, created a table of his own where this time he noted that the elements were also grouped by their valence. And valence, this is like one of really

the more important things, I would say, in like all of the covalent, well, not necessarily covalent, covalent, and Iodic. But like, is it adjacent to that? Yeah, how things react, how elements react with other elements, you know, that's the valence, right? Okay. And that he arranged, like he realized, you know,

like every eight, again, had similar similar things a different character is so right So he's noted that every eighth one. There's a different characteristic Is there something a typical what that eight one would differ in like what's its variable? There is oh, yes There is yeah We're gonna get into why this eight number and really it's not really the eight number once you get passed like after our guy I mean it does still matter obviously, but like where's that element number 18? So after our guy it really like that's why because you're gonna do a different orbital. We'll get it So after a Meyer that's when Russian chemist in February of 1869

Dimitri Mendelev came around and he made his table. And Mendelef, that's pretty much what we're using still to this day. Right. The like little keyboard at the bottom. Yes. So blocks, the square rectangle in the center, the three kind of ascending pillars to the left, and then a flat tall block to the right and one singular column on the very right most one. Well, I mean, he didn't actually, he didn't technically have like that, you know, that exact shape. He didn't lay it out that way. Okay. But he had groups in period.

He made groups in periods and all that. And like he separated out ones like he could tell he could predict that like, Hey, these two are, you know, there's someone like they might be in the same group or the same period, but there's another one that's in between them. They're two, you know, they're too far apart. Right, right.

There's a gap here. Yeah. Exactly. So he had he left a bunch of gaps that were filled in eventually, you know, so that's kind of cool. I remember at one point somebody saying there were at least one or two that had left to be filled. There's a bunch. I mean, well, I mean, theoretically, at this point today is there still one. 120, there is a limit. I forgot, I didn't look up the exact, but there is a limit, I think. 120, I think is theoretically possible.

Like I said, we went up to 118. It really wasn't till the discovery of the structure of the atom though, until like what makes up an atom, until we were able to put these together and figure out why this is going on, you know like they weren't Realized like why you know they just had different characteristics like hey these Characteristics match so let's put them here, you know, they didn't know why that was happening So I think it's still in 1869

Niels Bohr who was a Dutch physicist was the first to model the Adam which Has the prototype the neutron and the atom, which has the pro-todden neutron and the electrons, which I'll define in a second. And New England physicist, or sorry, and New Zealand physicist Ernest Rutherford later coined the term atomic number to describe the number of protons in the atom. That's what it's the proton count, or whatever, right? Yes. Exactly. So when you're looking at the numbers in the top, again, everybody, as long as you're not driving

or something, pull up a periodic table, if you can, the numbers, it's either in the top, middle, or left will be the atomic number. And the big letters, that's the abbreviation for the element. And some are weird, right? So it's because it's based on Latin. Right, okay.

So like when you got like silver as A, G, or gold as A, U, or iron as F, E, because that's what I remember is because it's ferrous. So F, E, ferrous, that's where it comes from. It add up consists of positively charged particles called protons, negatively charged particles called electrons, and particles with no charge called neutrons. And the protons and the neutrons form a small nucleus in the

center of the atom, while the electrons orbit around that nucleus in distinct shell-type patterns. So, like, these patterns are what are called the valence shells, or the orbitals. And through that, that's how all reactions occur, really. You know, like how molecules form is, depending on how many electrons are in the outer most shell. For the most. So I mean, realistically, that's because it's a simple will it won't it with bonding, right?

Yeah, well, I mean, that's what really, like, that's what makes, and what they're related about. Because if you look down, like the first row, they have one extra 2S orbital. And through that, they want to give up that electron, right? They want to get rid of it. That's how they bond. You got lithium sodium, sodium, and you got chlorine. Let's look at, think of that, sodium chloride is table-saw, right? Llorine chloride is salt. Just regard the noble gases for a second, because they have a full valent shell on the outermost, so they don't want to react. So that's why fluorine, chlorine, bromine, iodine,

like those are really reactive, just like lithium, sodium, well, even hydrogen too. Definitely is, but lithium, sodium, potassium, right? Those are really reactive too. That and sodium and chlorine, they get together and make table salt. But separated, they're not the nicest things to mess around with. Definitely. They're dangerous.

They're caustic chemicals, right? Yeah, or even the explosive chemicals. We'll talk about sodium and mm. I have a story to talk about. Sodium is great for you. Yeah, it definitely is, but it has to be because it binds. It's like you have sodium gated channels in your body. Like sodium is very important for you. Yeah, definitely. That's all like your nerves work, I think. But anyways, that's never sorry. Well, like in mass like that. Yeah, like yeah. Sodium is like one of the most plentiful,

you know, things in the human body. Well, I don't know about it. When you're doing a fasting, you've got to keep up your sodium. Sodium, yeah, in this form of table salt, sodium chloride. It's sodium and chlorine, which, yeah, it's kind of crazy to think that like, jaw lights. Yeah, that's what they are. They're both electrolytes because when they break off into their ions and through that they can bind to other things in your body. Okay. Yeah. Beautiful. Yeah.

So the table is currently arranged by how many protons are in the atom or the atomic number, right? So as you go up from one to two, you know, hydrogen S1, then all the way up to plutonium, which is the last naturally occurring element at 94, that is 94. And really plutonium, it is naturally occurring, but it only occurs from like uranium ice toast. Like, yeah, it's radioactivity. I don't want to get into that. Oh, it doesn't occur.

It doesn't occur. It's really uranium at number 92 is like the most plentiful. You know, like uranium is how we made that nuclear bomb and all that. But like I said earlier, 118 has been made 120 theoretically. They have a made 120, but there's been a lot of different talk about making it possibly. Okay. The atomic weight didn't work though because isotopes and what isotopes are they are the the same element But they have a different number of neutrons in their nucleus and from that they there's a lot of different characteristics that can come from

Have a different number of neutrons and it does they weigh different obviously because neutrons do have weight even though they're neutral charge But right they saw our mass right Yes, and the atomic weight is, it's a weighted average. I'll just call it that. I don't think that's the right word. But, so it's like, let's say there's 70% of this isotope. They, you know, 70% of that, then they add that to 20%, 20% of this and the 10% of that isotope. You know, it's a, so it's kind of a weight, whatever that is. Is that a median? No that I still be you know, it's a so it's kind of a way whatever that is

Is that a median? No, it is it's average. Yeah, it's a average. I'm saying it's like that's what the time a number is sorry Yeah, it's like Like I said, it's like you take the average of all the isotopes then the Occurring isotopes and then but based on how prevalent they are in nature, and that's how you get the atomic weight. So it's not really, there can be different atomic weights than what the atomic number is, obviously, right? Because some are way more or some way less, depending on if they have more neutrons or

less neutrons in their nucleus, right? So the isotopes, but like isotopes man like we use isotopes for so much stuff. Like carbon isotopes are used for carbon dating. Right. Or to date, then it only goes back, like I think it's a couple million years, and it might even be less than that. Only a couple million.

And uranium isotopes, there's a certain one that was used to make the atomic weapons. When they were enriching uranium, they were trying to look for a specific isotope to enrich. They were trying to get that one specific one that didn't occur as much as the normal uranium that was around. So these orbital shells I keep speaking of,

there's six different ones. I only really learned about four of them and the four of them are pretty much what happens in normal, like in nature. You know, like there's two right on Wikipedia that I saw, but I didn't read it anywhere else. Like, man, I had like so many tabs open when I was researching this more than usual. Because there's just a lot of info. But yeah, Wikipedia is the only one that is like an eye orbital, an K orbital or something.

I don't know. But the four that I know, and I was talking about, were the SPD and F shells, right? And each one of these can hold more electrons because they get bigger and bigger. Think about like, just think of different like shells around the nucleus, right? And the first one is the S one. And it holds only two electrons and it's the shape of a sphere. But when you get to the P one, that's when it has six different electrons in it. And it can get like a bunch of different shapes. I know one of them, a very common one is like an hourglass shape. And when you take organic chemistry, you got to know about these with these damn shapes you know I remember

that was fun oh my god yeah yeah yeah yeah the patterning oh yeah all this stuff like when I started reading all this stuff it probably back like brought back nightmares it did I mean I know like it's very, but like we have to learn it and like understand it. It's hard. And that's why people like a lot of people aren't scared of science, but once you like, I don't know. You don't have to be, it is a lot of stuff, but it's not any harder than learning any other subjects. It's just that there's a lot of info. And if you're really into something, I mean, definitely pursue it because man, like there's so much in science or so many different things you can do. It's crazy. But there's so many things that these elements can do when you have the D orbitals.

It can hold 10 electrons. So Y8 was important because up to our God, they only have the S and the P orbitals, which if you add those two together, 2 plus 6 is 8, right? And so that's the the shells that it can fill. And that's why all these these different chemists and physicists and stuff were saying like, Oh, yeah, you know, once the eight after eight, the characteristics reset because it's another shell. Right. Right. What you need to remember is that the outer shell is like really what makes the reactions, right right? If you have so you want eight or sometimes 18 or if you even get into the F which like that is the lactinized and attenite

I think that's how you say them That's the F shell they can hold 14 electrons and yeah anyways Let's continue on. Again I already said this I'm gonna miss some stuff I'm gonna I might even say some stuff wrong when I was doing the notes for this and I got to that point I'm like man how am I gonna explain this it took me forever to understand that concept to explain it in like you know a paragraph is hard but like I said you stepped in like, you know, a paragraph is hard. But like I said, you stepped in a very, you know, like taking away electrons,

them giving electrons, you know, like the left side gives electrons, the right side takes away electrons on the period of time. And let's talk about the groups now. Because these, you know, are a little more straightforward, you can kind of see, this is the part I like yeah So the first groups

Which is called the alkaline metals consist of hydrogen kind of because hydrogen is kind of its own thing But hydrogen lithium sodium potassium Rubium and cesium and Fransium so these Elements are like super reactive right like I said, because they have that one electron that you just want to get rid of. And they're soft shiny metals when they're on their own. And like you have to store them in oil though, because of how reactive they are to water. Even sodium. Sodium is hot, like they get less reactive. Francium is the most reactive because of how big it is. And you know, I'm gonna eat just how much mass and energy is in that.

And lithium is the least. But if you have raw sodium and you throw it in water, it'll explode. Like if you're looking up on YouTube or something like that, you'll see videos, plenty of videos of people throwing sodium into the water, like a lake or something. And it just like boom, baby, huge. it's a reaction, but it's an explosion.

Like a huge explosion? Yeah, from how much? Like, yeah, any bit, any bit. Like if I had a stone for it, like if I held my hand. If you had like a palm size amount, you could hurt yourself with the water, I'd say, at that point. Yeah. Yeah, that would probably splash up like a big wave of water.

Yeah. Let's continue on to the pier. On to the pier, I'd table in the different groups. Or the families, even, because some of the groups are kind of grouped together. But group two are called the alkaline earth metals. And this consists of things like burrillium, magnesium, calcium, strontium, barium, and Radium.

And I think you got, like, obviously no Calcium and Magnesium, right? Maybe even Burrillium. Barium, I know Kyle knows because Mami used to mess with a lot of that Barium. I had her own job, right? Yeah, I know about Barium. Yeah, they're good old heavy metal that, you know, contaminates everything. Anyways, and know. Yeah, that good old heavy metal that contaminates everything. Anyways, and these though have a full asshole orbital, but asshole orbital is kind of weak, right?

It's just this, it's two electrons. They want to go hang out with their full nice HL. So they get rid of them pretty easily too. And these aren't like reactive so much in water. Like if you put some calcium, like pure calcium in water, it's like they explode like sodium will, but they are like, they still are reactive in nature and stuff, you know. And as they're shiny and so very white kind of like the alkaline metals in their natural forms, but they're not really found in nature like

naturally as much, but they're found really found in nature, like naturally, as much, but they're found all over nature, obviously, just not naturally. Or, sorry, in their pure elemental form, should I say. So next we come to groups three through twelve, and I'm grouping these together because they're the metals. And if you look at it again at the periodic table, it's like, it's the big group. I'm Google, it's purple for me. Purple and green actually,

because we're including aluminum and gallium. It should be aluminum, I like that better. That's how the British say it. It just sounds better to me. Out of you, mini-m. Out of you, mini-m. But, yeah, but, yeah, that sounds better to me.

I don't care. But, because a lot of them are EM at the end. Yeah. But there's also things like, um, so the purple and the green and this like, grayed out block. Yeah, the grayed out block. Well, that's the, you know, the synthetically made ones.

And like they're, they last really shortly and stuff. So they're not really, they're not naturally occurring. They don't, you know, they don't do something. Yeah. They're the same. But They don't do stuff. Yeah, exactly. But these are things like iron or copper, chromium, gold, silver, all the metals. They typically, the reason I'm grouping them together is because they form covalent bonds. They don't form the ionic bonds like these do. And what ionic bonds are, is where they actually give the electrons

covalent or where they more like share them. They're more their friendlier, right? They want to share their electrons more so than just take and give, you know. But so and these also can form like different like they can have more electrons in each one of their outer shells, right? Each one of their valent shells. So there can be a different configurations of them. You know, like iron can have two or three electrons or same with aluminum, you know, aluminum is three or four or something like that. You know, so that's how they can react

with a lot of different things. But yeah, they also have high conductivity, they melt high and they have high boiling points. Like imagine trying to boil Cobalt or nickel or something like that, you know my god, right? Yeah, like like what Gaseous iron Yeah, cuz water kind of like insulates heat right to a certain extent. I mean yes, you're right Yo, you're right. You like I mean that's definitely when you're cooking if you cook if you're boiling something It will not get higher than

2012 degrees like if you're if you're cooking something and boiling right because that water evaporates Yeah, like yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, it's actually really crazy to think about like is you seeking control? That's the smartest yet I've ever said on this podcast Yeah, it was nice. It was nice. It was great. That was great. That was good.

That was very nice. But that metal, you know, that's the thing. The metal itself probably is way hotter than 212 degrees. But I think it's in the water is not, you know. Yeah. But metals are metallical, I think, believe it or not. And they're also malleable though Which is very important there you know you can bend them and shape them and by hitting them, right?

You know like they're malleable Yeah, I mean yeah, right. Yeah, I mean some are more than others obviously But that's I was gonna say I figured that technically you would consider that not malleable But you're right like even though it would take striking it with iron and like forcing it with... Yeah, there's actually one gallium is awesome. Actually, I should have said that's my favorite element because... Did it change it? Yeah, it's the last of the end.

Exactly, probably probably the last time. I do like tungsten a lot too, But gallium's kind of that opposite end where it melts in your hand. It melts at like 95 degrees. Like I said, if you're gonna handle gallium without gloves, wash your hands after you handle this. You know, like things like that. Like do it safely, you're gonna, yeah.

If you're gonna do dump stuff, do it safely. Right? Yeah. So the next ones though, are metalloids or semi-metals. And these consist of like boron, silicone, germanium, arsenic, antimony, and talerium. And arsenic, man, yes, you can play with that all the time, right?

Like you've heard of arsenic, right? That's one you put. I'm actually sifting it on. Yeah, it's great stuff. So no, actually, these are all actually really bad things. Boron, though, is weird. It has like a weird bonding. It bonds with like five electrons.

I remember just learning about in college. It's a weird element. But yeah, in Silicon, though, obviously, you know about that. Like the chips and all that. But it's even theorized,ized though because if you look at it It's right underneath carbon. It shares a lot of the same properties as carbon does even though it's kind of in a different group but It's theorized that they're might be like silicon

Life out there. It's possible like to have silicon like so a cond based life forms. Yeah, we're all yeah It'd be crazy. I might be doing the aliens This thing right now, but I mean it's probably unlikely because there's not more carbon in the universe that's so good But yeah, but like I mean It doesn't it doesn't really matter that it's carbon-based life forms as much as it does. It's just from a different planet, right? Like no, I mean just like relative abundance, you know, like there's a lot more carbon, and carbon's easier to bottle with,

because the whole thing I'm just talking about, if you look at it, it's physiologically doesn't matter. But if, yes, if you look at carbon, the one thing about carbon, and it's silicon too, is that it's four, it's four in, right? So it has four electrons, it can go, it's kind of either way, know it can go it's very I can be negative I can be positive. Yes, it will it just it like it wants those four and you can buy like two and two

You know like maybe someone one element takes two and other takes another two things like that like carbon is the building box of life Right, like that's what's and what we'll talk about that next. And that's, those are called the non-metals, right? Carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, all that phosphorus, sulfur, all those are the non-metals. And they're kind of, the things that they share in common is they have a high ionization energy, right? They have like, they want to react with things, you know? They have yeah, they have they have they're lonely They're looking for a connection. Yeah, they're trying to yeah Yeah, and they're but they are poor electrical conductors and thermal conductors and they right yeah, but other than that though

They also create like such a carbon nitrogen and oxygen are like three of the biggest things that occur in nature. The most prevalent elements that you think of day to day, right, or make your day to day day. Organic molecules, right? Yeah. Yeah, like those three are just so important for life and everything in the world. But was sulfur and phosphorus, man?

Yes, sulfur phosphorus is just looking. Yeah, yeah, like, yeah, they're all over the place too. Yep. And what we have next is the halogens. And halogens are these crazy reactive ones going. Because again, like I said earlier, the noble guesses you kind of set aside because they don't react.

That's why they're noble. I guess they used to mean like unreactive, but are not reactive. But so these halogens, they're kind of like lithium, sodium, potassium, but on the other end, they want that that extra electron. Halogen means salt, former, or salt maker because they react with a lot of the alkali metals to form or even metals in general to form a wide range of different salts. So like things like chlorine, there can be like sodium chloride or sodium fluoride or sodium bromide or lithium bromide

or lithium chloride, things like that. These are all different salts that form Even naturally now once those things are mixing and combining If there's a different Is it charge those things get the suffix right? Yes, I mean like if you're writing it. Yeah, yeah, they get like a plus It's a super script right up on top on the top right of it. You know if you're writing it. Yeah, yeah, yeah Yeah, I'm like Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah Yeah, there's there's so many elements even now like hearing you say this again that again

You're right like I am taking back to like I remember college man chemistry and college was crazy I'm taking back to like, I remember college, man, chemistry in college was crazy. It's been biochemistry was the hardest one for me. That was the most insane class I've ever taken in my life. But yes, we have a few more though. We have three more I want to get through. So that's one of this kind of group of two of them. I kind of grouped them together

because these ones, if you look at the table, they're kind of in a weird spot. They're on the bottom. It's the, the lathenites and the actinites this is the keyboard yes these are the ones I've always wondered why they're like secluded you're getting to have your elements again like I said so you're getting those F orbitals and those D orbitals well mostly the F orbitals okay those that's what actually what is the the lanthanides and the actinides have.

Because of that, they're like, like I said, these things have different configurations, right? They have different, like, you probably know, like the typical, like, look of what an atom is, like, or, you know, you got that electron spinning around it, right? With a ring. With a ring. With a scary, typical one of one singularity. Yes.

Exactly. Exactly. That's not how it is. No. Exactly. That's not how it is. No, yeah, that's not how it is in real life. Like, it's actually like, it's like a cloud. It's a cloud of electrons, right? They're, you can't really, they never like, they don't move around. They don't move around in the orbit.

The actinites are all radioactive. A lot of the lathenites aren't. But the actinites like uranium is an actinite and plutonium and things like that. And they're very similar, but at the same time, not the very heavy elements. And they're called rare earth elements. They're not really that rare in actuality. They're really hard to find, not grouped together so you can't bring them apart. You know, like what they're found together a lot. Oh! So it's really hard to purify them. not grouped together so you can't bring them apart. You know, like what they're found together a lot. Oh.

So it's really hard to purify them. That's the same word I'm saying. Yeah, they're really purified everything. So like that's where they're rare earth. Like because you can't get them on their own. Recently though, we've been able to do that. So it's not there. They're so rare anymore.

But yeah. But that's, you know, like that was the whole thing about uranium is that we couldn't get that specific isotope we're looking that's you know like that was the whole thing about Uranium is that we kind of get that that specific isotope We're looking for you know until the 1900s early 1900s and then boom after that literally boom Yeah, so that's right those are like, you know, that's the Electronics and actinites there they always confused me in class because they're just yeah They're their own little thing and they put and they put them down there because it would look Yeah, they cordoned them for a reason and especially if you like well, yeah, if you look at the table

You're gonna put them in those last two rows It would just make the period of table so much longer or wider, you know, it'd be harder to read and everything So they don't do that so last one and we've talked about this we touched on this a couple times is the noble gases and they consist of helium neon argon krypton, Kyle's favorite, Z-N-N and radon and also organeson. That's the heaviest one. That sounds cool that might be my second favorite. That's one eighteen organeson it's a cana song. And they're relatively non-reactive, because you can get them to react in certain conditions,

but pretty much they're not reactive. And they're all gases at standard room temperature and pressure, which STP man, that was the, you know, that's, the chemistry, STP, because like, I mean, that's the thing. Like, you have to talk about things that are like, at like 70 degrees.

I think it's 70 or 75 degrees Fahrenheit. And, you know, sea level. That's because if you're talking about something that's cold, it's going to be a different, it's going to have different characteristics or something that's hot, right? And these noble gases at STP have, or gases, except for organisand. I guess it's a liquid or it's theorized it's been artificially created like a minus school amount of it.

You know, a lot of these like artificially created ones are like not even micrograms, like picograms or no 10 to the negative 6 grams or something, but they have no color or order or flavor under ordinary conditions. They do get colored as liquids or solids though. And at low pressure, they will conduct electricity and thorress, and you might know these as neon lights. And back in the day, they would use different noble gases to produce different colors. They don't, I think they, obviously, they still probably make them like that. But, you know, neon lights, I think nowadays are mostly like, um, aliens. Probably.

I don't know. Current technology has kind of like made them a little, obviously, a little, yeah. Exactly. One thing they do, though, is they, they're good for creating blankets of unreactivity. So like you can use them to like you know in science to kind of insulate things. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. To like you know make it to where there's like an atmosphere with no that won't react to whatever you do. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But yeah. So that you know

was the long periodic table. Man we're gonna do with some deep subjects lately. I'm gonna kick I'm gonna maybe pull a back a little bit. Unless, you know, if people like it, tell us, you know, if you guys want me to keep doing these very detailed episodes, I will. But yes, anyways, gap. You wanna leave us out? And with that, we love to thank you for joining us here as always. You can find us on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, give us a rate and review on the podcast platform with your choice. It helps us find new listeners,

and it helps to show out just overall and in general. You can find us on Patreon, where you can get early access to these episodes by up to one week. Wait, a whole week. We can get it for a damn week early. What week, bro? It's pretty good. We continue on our March to episode 50.

We love you. Thank you for joining us as always. Thank you, Frog, for returning to us. Triumph at Lane. Do you have anything you'd like to give to the audience before we leave? Excited to be back. Excited to rock.

We're going to get these episodes out. We're awesome, man. We're going to have a year. And with that, we will see you again here soon. See ya. Brain soda.